Table of Contents

Chitwan Valley [Nepal] Family Study: Changing Social Contexts and Family Formation (ICPSR 4538)

Principal Investigator(s):
Axinn, William G., University of Michigan. Population Studies Center;
Thornton, Arland, University of Michigan. Survey Research Center;
Barber, Jennifer S., University of Michigan. Survey Research Center;
Murphy, Susan A., University of Michigan. Survey Research Center;
Ghimire, Dirgha, University of Michigan. Population Studies Center;
Fricke, Thomas, University of Michigan. Survey Research Center;
Matthews, Stephen, Pennsylvania State University. Population Research Institute;
Dangol, Dharma, Tribhuvan University (Nepal). Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science;
Pearce, Lisa, University of Michigan. Population Studies Center;
Biddlecom, Ann, University of Michigan. Population Studies Center;
Shrehtha, Sundar, Pennsylvania State University. Population Research Institute;
Massey, Douglas, University of Michigan. Population Studies Center

Summary:

The study was designed to investigate the influence of changing social contexts on family formation behaviors, marriage, childbearing, and contraceptive use. The research investigates the extent to which changes in the community produce changes in family formation behavior, and whether the family organization of individual life courses produces these changes in behavior. The study used a combination of ethnographic and survey research methods to gather 171 neighborhood histories, 142 school histories, 118 health service histories, 20 bus route histories, household farming practices, family planning histories, and household composition in Western Chitwan, Nepal. Personal histories were gathered from the 5,271 individuals ages 15-59 years living in these neighborhoods using a semi-structured Life History Calendar and a highly structured survey questionnaire. The sample neighborhoods for this study were chosen to represent the five major ethnic groups inhabiting the area: high caste Hindus, hill Tibeto-Burmese (such as Gurung, Tamang, and Magar), indigenous terai Tibeto-Burmese (such as Tharu, Darai, and Kumal), Newar, and other caste Hindus. Neighborhood history calendars measured the neighborhood's distance, in terms of minutes walking, to a variety of organizations and services. Schools were defined as places of instruction for children of any age or grade. Health clinics were defined as any places of care and healing, such as doctors' offices, hospitals, and health posts. Employers were any places that employed 10 or more people for pay. Cinemas were movie theaters or halls where movies were shown. Bus stops were any places where people could obtain a ride for pay on a vehicle.
This particular study spanned 1997-2002. These data were combined with data from the Chitwan Valley Family Study 1996-1997, and the Household Agriculture and Consumption Survey 1996.
** IMPORTANT NOTE FOR STATA USERS **
The Stata files for datasets 7, 15, 16, 18, and 32 were produced in Stata 13. Users of earlier versions of Stata will not be able to read them.
There are a few options for users of Stata 12 or earlier to work around the compatibility issue:
- Upgrade to Stata 13
- Find a computer with Stata 13 and use the 'saveold' command to create a Version 12 file
- Use the latest version of a file conversion utility, such as Stat/Transfer (older versions cannot read Stata 13 files)

The study was designed to investigate the influence of changing social contexts on family formation behaviors, marriage, childbearing, and contraceptive use. The research investigates the extent to which changes in the community produce changes in family formation behavior, and whether the family organization of individual life courses produces these changes in behavior. The study used a combination of ethnographic and survey research methods to gather 171 neighborhood histories, 142 school histories, 118 health service histories, 20 bus route histories, household farming practices, family planning histories, and household composition in Western Chitwan, Nepal. Personal histories were gathered from the 5,271 individuals ages 15-59 years living in these neighborhoods using a semi-structured Life History Calendar and a highly structured survey questionnaire. The sample neighborhoods for this study were chosen to represent the five major ethnic groups inhabiting the area: high caste Hindus, hill Tibeto-Burmese (such as Gurung, Tamang, and Magar), indigenous terai Tibeto-Burmese (such as Tharu, Darai, and Kumal), Newar, and other caste Hindus. Neighborhood history calendars measured the neighborhood's distance, in terms of minutes walking, to a variety of organizations and services. Schools were defined as places of instruction for children of any age or grade. Health clinics were defined as any places of care and healing, such as doctors' offices, hospitals, and health posts. Employers were any places that employed 10 or more people for pay. Cinemas were movie theaters or halls where movies were shown. Bus stops were any places where people could obtain a ride for pay on a vehicle.

This particular study spanned 1997-2002. These data were combined with data from the Chitwan Valley Family Study 1996-1997, and the Household Agriculture and Consumption Survey 1996.

** IMPORTANT NOTE FOR STATA USERS **

The Stata files for datasets 7, 15, 16, 18, and 32 were produced in Stata 13. Users of earlier versions of Stata will not be able to read them.

There are a few options for users of Stata 12 or earlier to work around the compatibility issue:

- Upgrade to Stata 13

- Find a computer with Stata 13 and use the 'saveold' command to create a Version 12 file

- Use the latest version of a file conversion utility, such as Stat/Transfer (older versions cannot read Stata 13 files)

Guidelines for Applying for Restricted Data

ICPSR offers two methods of accessing the restricted-use data from this study:

secure dissemination of the microdata

remote access to the microdata via ICPSR's Virtual Data Enclave (VDE)

Which Method Should You Choose?

Applicants with a terminal degree (e.g., PhD, MD, DrPH, JD, etc) in a social science field and an appointment at a research institution are likely to
be able to access the data via secure dissemination. Most other applicants will need to access these restricted-use data via the VDE.

Information to Help You Complete Your Request

Applicants should be prepared to provide the following:

Project description supporting need to access the data

IRB document (approval or exemption)

Data Use Agreement signed by the Investigator and a legal representative of the institution

Secure Dissemination: DUA is available within the request system

VDE: DUA is emailed to requester after request is initiated

Data security plan

Secure Dissemination: created within the request system

VDE: In DUA as Attachment A

Roster of research staff who will access the data; may need to include IT staff able to view the data or access the computer where the data are hosted

This data collection may not be used for any purpose other than statistical reporting and analysis. Use of these data to learn the identity of any person or establishment is prohibited. To protect respondent privacy, all data files in this collection are restricted from general dissemination. To obtain these restricted files, researchers must agree to the terms and conditions of a Restricted Data Use Agreement.

Any public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public.
Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

Dataset(s)

WARNING: Because this study has many datasets, the download all files option has been suppressed, and you will need to download one dataset at a time.

WARNING: This study is over 150MB in size and may take several minutes to download on a typical internet connection.

Universe:
Residents of the western Chitwan Valley in south central
Nepal and their spouses, 15-59 years of age.

Data Type(s):
survey data

Data Collection Notes:

This data collection combines new data with two
previously released datasets: CHITWAN VALLEY [NEPAL] FAMILY STUDY,
1996-1997 (ICPSR 3059) and HOUSEHOLD AGRICULTURE AND CONSUMPTION
SURVEY, 1996 [CHITWAN VALLEY, NEPAL] (ICPSR 3392). These two datasets
are no longer available individually.

Dataset 29, 1996 and 2008 Panel Data Combination, Restricted-Use is a combination of variables from datasets 27 and 12.

Datasets 30 and 31 share additional GIS shapefiles. See the Guide to the Western Chitwan ArcGIS Map Document for more information on these shapefiles and how to use them with the datasets.

Methodology

Sample:
Neighborhoods were chosen as the sampling units. The
sample is stratified into three distance strata. Stratum 1 includes only areas near the urban center, city of Narayanghat. Stratum 3 includes only areas far from Narayanghat and Stratum 2 includes the areas at the middle, between Stratum 1 and Stratum 3. The sample is two stage. Stage 1 is a sample of settlements selected using 1991 census data as a sampling frame. The settlement ranged from 15 to 1,000 households. Measure of size was the number of female residents in the settlement. Stage 1 sampling yielded a systematic sample of 10 settlements in each stratum, for a total of 30 settlements. Stage 2 was the actual sample of Toles, or neighborhoods. Stage 2 sampling units are neighborhoods which are defined as clusters of approximately
5 to 15 households in close proximity to one another.

Mode of Data Collection:
mixed mode

Data Source:

personal interviews

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Version(s)

2014-08-25 Adding additional documentation (codebooks) to be released publicly.

2014-08-25 Part 7 has additional months of data. For Part 18, variables T2A19a-T2A19o have been added. For Part 15, one of the respondent's codes for Spouse 2 should be "4". The same change was made for Part 16. Part 32 contains forest calendar data.

2012-11-14 Documentation files were added for public release.

2012-11-14 Minor edits made to the metadata.

2011-09-06 Files missing from the previous update are now available.

2011-09-01 The principal investigators submitted 3 new datasets, parts 29, 30, and 31. Part 29 is a combined dataset of 1996 and 2008 Panel Data.

2010-10-22 The principal investigators submitted updates of the Household Registry at 126 months restricted and public-use data. Also, parts 17, 18, 19, 21, 23, and 24 are being updated. Additionally, it has been discovered that previously parts 21 and 25 are the same. Therefore, a duplicate part has been removed, making 26 parts instead of 27.